I'm not very good with Flex nibs yet, but my son has been using dip pens and flex nibs for a while. I will have to get him to provide some better writing samples. He's only almost 14 and has been writing with fountain pens since he was 8 and he's a lefty.

So there's hope for us all!

Enjoy

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I'd suggest heat-setting the feed with hot water to ensure contact with the nib right to it's tip. A properly set feed will ensure consistency of flow, provide support for the nib on the upstroke, and will reduce the likelihood of ink splatters while in transit.This process will be much easier with the feed removed from the pen, as the plastic feeds are fairly rigid and it'll likely take a few tries before you're satisfied with the result. I've performed the same process myself recently to fit a Visconti nib to my 580.

I've been using the pen more throughout the day, and it write very well. With no pressure, it's a very wet and smooth nib. With pressure even wetter. I haven't managed to get it railroad with normal handwriting or even with flexing.

I happy with the way it has been performing so far. I don't carry this pen with me, so ink splatters won't be a problem at the moment. However, the FPR Guru I purchased with the nibs, has more of a problem, so I definitely will not be carrying that around!

I'd suggest heat-setting the feed with hot water to ensure contact with the nib right to it's tip. A properly set feed will ensure consistency of flow, provide support for the nib on the upstroke, and will reduce the likelihood of ink splatters while in transit.This process will be much easier with the feed removed from the pen, as the plastic feeds are fairly rigid and it'll likely take a few tries before you're satisfied with the result. I've performed the same process myself recently to fit a Visconti nib to my 580.

Is there a post on heat setting or a good guide you know of, because after seeing this I'm interested in trying this set up as well, it looks GOOD!

Well, Art is Art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know.-Groucho Marx

I'm not surprised to see that this combo works well - though pleasantly surprised at your results with the flex nib. I swapped a #5 FPR nib into my 580 when I damaged the nib last year - until TWSBI kindly sent me a replacement. The #5.5 is longer, and will seat more deeply into the nib assembly.

Just FYI, if you prefer a monochrome stainless steel finish, FPR now sell those too.

Is there a post on heat setting or a good guide you know of, because after seeing this I'm interested in trying this set up as well, it looks GOOD!

There are a few threads on heat setting ebonite feeds, but not much that I've seen for plastic feeds. It is possible though.

The process I followed is:

remove the nib and feed from the section/collar

immerse the front half of the feed in a glass of just-boiled water for about 30 seconds (immerse as much as possible but take care not to burn your fingers - steam is hot, trust me)

press the feed against a bench top to re-shape it as it cools, maybe 10 seconds or so

check your progress by holding nib and feed together in your fingers

repeat as necessary

when you think it's right, reassemble the nib and feed into the section/collar and check again that all looks good

disassemble and repeat if further correction is required

When you have it right:

pressing gently downward on the tines should not cause downward deflection of any kind at the tip of the feed, and a sheet of normal 80gsm copy paper should not side easily between the assembled nib/feed. In this state, upstrokes may be squeaky and fast lines can cause resonance & ink splatter.

the tines should not be splayed part excessively, which depending on severity could cause excess wetness or loss of flow

There are a few threads on heat setting ebonite feeds, but not much that I've seen for plastic feeds. It is possible though.

The process I followed is:

remove the nib and feed from the section/collar

immerse the front half of the feed in a glass of just-boiled water for about 30 seconds (immerse as much as possible but take care not to burn your fingers - steam is hot, trust me)

press the feed against a bench top to re-shape it as it cools, maybe 10 seconds or so

check your progress by holding nib and feed together in your fingers

repeat as necessary

when you think it's right, reassemble the nib and feed into the section/collar and check again that all looks good

disassemble and repeat if further correction is required

When you have it right:

pressing gently downward on the tines should not cause downward deflection of any kind at the tip of the feed, and a sheet of normal 80gsm copy paper should not side easily between the assembled nib/feed. In this state, upstrokes may be squeaky and fast lines can cause resonance & ink splatter.

the tines should not be splayed part excessively, which depending on severity could cause excess wetness or loss of flow

Hope that helps.

Thank you! I look foward to trying this out.

Well, Art is Art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know.-Groucho Marx

I have tried this as well with my Classic. Seems to work pretty well with no adjustment. However, I have noticed some ink on the section a few times after removing the cap. I also wonder if the Classic is structurally sound enough to bare the stress from flexing. I decided to remove the flex nib but it is stuck there now. Oh well.

You should be able to remove the nib by putting the nib unit in some hot water for a few minutes and then using some grippy material (like the stuff S B R E Brown uses) and pull the nib & feed out of the nib unit. You may need to wiggle nib to loosen it.

As for ink on the section, I got that on mine with the original nib. I put a little silicone grease on the threads of the nib unit before screwing it and that stopped it.

I have since got a new nib unit from TWSBI, as the collar had cracked and nib kept drying out (great customer service). The new nib is like night and day. Writes beautifully and doesn't dry out or leak!!

Before the new nib unit, is the reason why I thought about the FPR nib. It worked very well, but it requires quite a bit of pressure for flexing, and like you was a bit concerned about the strength of the TWSBI. Besides the new medium TWSBI nib was smoooooth!

The nib worked better in the 530/540/580. May being a larger pen, it didn't feel like it needed as much pressure as with the Classic. I used the TWSBI feed rather than the ebonite. It seemed to work better than the ebonite.

It was the 5.1mm feed. But, after not using it for a couple of days, the pen dried up and had to prime to feed to make it write. I ended up getting feb up of it and put the original nib and feed back in.

However, seeing as I like to try and make things work, so I tried again. This time I used the original TWSBI feed with the FPR nib, but I pushed the nib in further almost to the point where the nib slit was touching the section.

It now writes wonderfully, very wet with no pressure and flexes pretty well with some pressure. Flex too much and it still runs dry, but I get the flex I want with a small amount of pressure, so I'm happy. I'll will try and post some writing samples up tomorrow.

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